Wednesday, August 29, 2007

This video is infuriating. As the first post at this blog, I posted this video with a transcript of the voice over. The white police officer insists (incorrectly) that he has been short-changed at Wendy's, and then he maces and arrests a 17-year old Black waitress, even after the restaurant manager has proved to the police officer that he has received correct change.

Now, read how this injustice was "resolved."

"Judge Upholds Rehiring of Cop Who Sprayed Girl"

DAYTON, Ohio — A judge has upheld the reinstatement of a policeman fired after using pepper spray on a worker at a fast-food restaurant.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Froelich ruled Monday that the city is bound by an arbitrator's order to rehire policeman Michael McDonald.

City officials are considering whether to pursue the case, spokesman Tom Biedenharn said Tuesday.

Officer McDonald used pepper spray on Brandy Martin, then 17, while arresting her in February 1998. He said she refused to go with him to his cruiser and receive a summons after he accused her of shortchanging him at the drive-through window.

Officer McDonald, 35, was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault in June 1998. But Police Chief Ronald Lowe fired him a few weeks later, saying OfficerMcDonald's actions were callous and brutal. Tristate Digest

Carpio, 26, was charged in Providence District Court with killing Detective James L. Allen with the officer's gun around 12 a.m. Sunday as the veteran officer questioned him about the stabbing of an 84-year-old woman.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Daly said in court that Carpio grabbed Allen's pistol in a third-story interview room, shot him twice, blew out a window with another gunshot, and jumped 60 feet to a grassy mound. He was captured after what police described as a violent struggle several blocks away, about 45 minutes later.

Carpio's relatives gasped when court officers led in the shackled man, his eyes red, swollen slits.

''Oh, my God, look what they did to him," one of Carpio's relatives wailed, adding a vulgarity about the police officers.

Carpio's weeping mother, Yvonne Carpio, a teacher at Hennigan Elementary School in Jamaica Plain who lives in Roslindale, shouted, ''Steve, tell him not guilty," referring to Chief District Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio. Esteban Carpio is called Steve by his family.

Court officers quickly grabbed several of the relatives by the arms, including Carpio's mother, and led them out of the courtroom as family members accused police of brutality. Carpio could be heard saying, ''I love you, Mom," but his words were muffled by the mask, which court officials said was a ''spit shield" intended to protect others from blood and other fluids.

The back wall of the crowded courtroom was lined with police officers, including several detectives who glared at Carpio, a tattoo of a dragon on his left wrist.

Outside the courtroom, Carpio's uncle, Edward Thimas, expressed sorrow over the slaying of Allen, a 27-year veteran of the department. But Thimas said he was disgusted by the physical condition of his nephew. ''He's obviously been beaten very badly," Thimas said. He added that the family had tried repeatedly in recent days to get psychiatric care for Carpio, to no avail. Court documents said Carpio was a barber.

During a midafternoon news conference at police headquarters, Providence Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said Carpio was injured jumping out the window and in the struggle with law enforcement, near the AS220 art space downtown. Two State Police troopers, an FBI agent, and a Providence officer were the first to apprehend Carpio, and more police responded.

''When I saw him, he was pretty cut up," said Esserman, who said he saw Carpio soon after his arrest. Esserman said he had no evidence that officers used excessive force, although he promised to review the matter after Allen's funeral, slated for Thursday. More HERE

Hat tip to Sarhya for the link to the above video.

Esteban Carpio, has been convicted of the murder of Providence Police Detective Sgt. James Allen on April 17, 2006 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Carpio was being questioned by the Providence Police for the stabbing of an 85 year old woman. One of the detectives left the third floor interview room, leaving him alone with Allen. Carpio then took Allen's gun away and proceeded to shoot Allen twice, killing him. He then shot out and jumped from the window, but was apprehended 45 minutes later. Carpio was thought to have been physically abused by police after his capture, due to the obvious signs of trauma to his face. An investigation into the matter concluded that Carpio was not abused and that the damages to his face were likely caused by his landing from his jump from the third story window. His trial began June 8th, 2006.

On June 27, 2006, a jury found Esteban Carpio guilty of the murder of Detective Sgt. James L. Allen and the stabbing of Madeline Gatta. The jury rejected Carpio's insanity defense, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

(CBS4 [HERE]) FORT LAUDERDALE The family of a teen that was shot during a struggle with a police officer is pondering whether or not to file a lawsuit against the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

The family has hired the law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley to investigate the actions of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Lawyers held a news conference on Tuesday to discuss a significant case that they are investigating on behalf of Dwuan Crooms and his family.

The 15-year-old boy, who remains in critical condition at the Broward General Medical Center, was shot during a struggle with a Fort Lauderdale police officer Jason Hersh late Friday night following a two county car chase. More HERE from BrownWatch

Mayor Ray Nagin said he worries that slayings in the city make it seem dangerous, but news of such crimes "keeps the New Orleans Brand out there! This after A police officer fired from the New Orleans Police Department for the post-Katrina beating of a retired school teacher was cleared of criminal wrongdoing, declared "not guilty" of battery and false imprisonment by Judge Frank Marullo.

The incident (below) on Bourbon Street five weeks after the storm received international attention, as parts of the altercation between several law enforcement officers and Robert Davis, 66, was captured by two cameramen and broadcast around the world. The tape was often referred to as the prime exhibit of the post-Katrina struggles of a police department with a long history of police brutality. More HERE

Friday, August 10, 2007

This video is infuriating. Here's a transcript I've made of the voice-over of the above video, in which a white police officer insists (incorrectly) that he has been short-changed at Wendy's, and then he maces and arrests a 17-year old Black waitress, even after the restaurant manager has proved to the police officer that he has received correct change:

Dayton, Ohio. Seventeen year-old Brandy Martin’s working the drive through. Working for minimum wage is bad enough, but it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

She takes an order for three dollars and sixty-four cents. It’s for a cop, Michael McDonald. He pays her and she gives him his change. Seems routine, right? Wrooong!

After McDonald pulls out, he thinks she short-changed him. He’s sure he gave her a twenty, but he only got change for a ten.

Ut oh! Five-O in the house! And he wants his two-all! [Is this really funny to be joking about it?]

The cop pepper sprays her full in the face. Listen close! You can hear Brandy wheezing and trying to breathe. They can’t take her to the police station, ‘cause now she has to go to the hospital.

Let’s go back before all hell breaks loose. The cop pays Brandy. Freeze and zoom in! This spot’s for ones. This one’s for fives, this one’s for tens, and THIS one’s for twenties. It looks to us like Brandy puts the change in the ten-dollar slot. The manager checks the drawer. He don’t see no twenties neither. The tape don’t lie! Brandy is right and the cop is wrong.

Brandy files a case against the police department. The officer is cleared of all wrong-doing, but Brandy gets sixty-thousand bucks! It’s another special day in Dayton, Ohio.

I Googled this case and determined that the police officer in question was later fired from the force, because the video proved that his behavior was outrageous and intolerable:

DAYTON, Ohio -- The police chief on Friday fired a patrolman who arrested a fast-food restaurant worker, then doused her with pepper spray in a dispute over payment for his food.

While this particular incident occurred 9 years ago, IMO it's a good illustration of why so many [people of color] (and poor whites as well) distrust police. What makes this tape so different from many of the other tapes showing even worse brutality (too many to list) is that in this one, we know for sure the girl is completely innocent (mouthing off is not a crime) while the cop was clearly in the wrong. In most of the other tapes, we only see the brutality, not whether the suspect in question actually committed what he/she was accused of. EnMasse blog

Would the police officer have been fired and would Brandy have received any compensation in the absence of the videotape, and perhaps the testimony of her white co-workers? I doubt it!

And so begin the efforts of this Police Brutality Blog, to post reports and documentation of police brutality from the United States and other countries, to build a resistance movement so that Blacks and other human beings can work and live without living in fear of police brutality.